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Wongan Hills is a town in the
Shire of Wongan-Ballidu Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...
, in the Wheatbelt region of
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. The town is approximately 182 km north of the state capital
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, at an altitude of 286 metres. The town is named for a nearby range of hills that are found to the north-west of the town, also named
Wongan Hills Wongan Hills is a range of low flat-topped hills in the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion of Western Australia. It is located at , in the Shire of Wongan–Ballidu. History The range was first recorded in 1836 by Surveyor General of Western Australia Jo ...
, which was first recorded in 1836 by
Surveyor General of Western Australia The Surveyor General of Western Australia is the person nominally responsible for government surveying in Western Australia. In the early history of Western Australia, the office of surveyor general was one of the most important public offices. ...
John Septimus Roe John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in t ...
.


History

The area was settled by the 1900s, and in 1911 the town was gazetted and named after the range. "Wongan" is derived from the
Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
name "wangan-katta", "wanka" and "woongan". "Katta" is known to mean "hill", but the meaning of "wongan" is uncertain. It may be related to "
kwongan Kwongan is plant community found in south-western Western Australia. The name is a Bibbelmun (Noongar) Aboriginal term of wide geographical use defined by Beard (1976) as Kwongan has replaced other terms applied by European botanists such as ...
", an indigenous word for sandplain, or "whispering", in which case "wongan katta" would mean "whispering hills" (katta is a word for hill). In the early 1900s, poet Lilian Wooster Greaves lived with her family at Wongan Hills. Her book of poetry includes a number of prose and poetry items relating to living there at the time of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. In 1925, an agricultural research station was established about 5 km north of the town, which assisted in the
diversification Diversification may refer to: Biology and agriculture * Genetic divergence, emergence of subpopulations that have accumulated independent genetic changes * Agricultural diversification involves the re-allocation of some of a farm's resources to n ...
of and improvements in farm practices through the state. The area is a prosperous agricultural region with activities focused on sheep, grain and pig-farming. Construction of a
grain silo A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legumes ...
commenced in 1933 as part of the bulk handling scheme that had been introduced by the government and managed by
Cooperative Bulk Handling The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym for Co-operative Bulk Handling), is a grain growers' cooperative that handles, markets and processes grain from the wheatbelt of Western Australia. History CBH was formed on 5 April 1933, at a ...
. As part of
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
celebrations in 2009, a cross was laid out in a bare paddock using 460 half-
tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000  kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
hay bales with the aid of
GPS receiver A satellite navigation device (satnav device) is a user equipment that uses one or more of several global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) to calculate the device's geographical position and provide navigational advice. Depending on the ...
s. The cross was set alight on
Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...
night and was the end of a pilgrimage conducted on Easter Saturday.


Climate

Wongan Hills historically had a
Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Csa'') however drying associated with widening of the Hadley cell has shifted the area in recent times to a
hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
(''BSh'').Seidel, Diane J., Qiang Fu, Randell, William J. and Reichler, Thomas J.; 'Widening of the tropical belt in a changing climate', ''
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'', (2008), volume 1, pp. 21–24
The climate is similar to Northern Hemisphere areas on the southern Mediterranean Sea, such as
Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
or
Gaza City Gaza (;''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (1998), , p. 761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory in Palestine, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza...". ar, غَزَّة ', ), also referred to as Gaza City, i ...
, though Wongan Hills' inland location produces hotter, less arid summers and cooler winters than those localities. Summers are hot to sweltering and generally arid, though occasionally
tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
s from the Indian Ocean will affect the region after moving inland, whilst winters are comfortable with cold nights and occasional showers.


References


External links


Shire of Wongan-Ballidu
{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Wheatbelt (Western Australia) Grain receival points of Western Australia